World Environment Day

Thursday, June 05, 2014

World Environment Day

When : Always June 5th

World Environment Day focuses attention on important environmental issues. According to the United Nations "World Environment Day is commemorated each year on June 5th. It is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action."

Each year, a theme is selected. For 2014 the theme is, "Raise your voice, not the sea level."
"Planet Earth is our shared island, let us join forces to protect it."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the launch of the 2014 International Year of Small Islands and Developing States

Celebrate World Environment Day by:

Learn more about the environmental topic selected for this year.
Participate in World Environment Day activities.
Help to create awareness of the issues
Contribute to organizations supporting environmental issues.
The Origin of World Environment:

World Environment Day was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper. (1851)

American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners. (1864)

Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court; he is the first American Jew to hold such a position. (1916)

The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold. (1933)

World War II: The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. (1942)

World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. (1944)

Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements. (1956)

Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. presidential candidate, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian. Kennedy dies the next day. (1968)

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that five people in Los Angeles, California, have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS. (1981)

Tropical Storm Allison makes landfall on the upper-Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumps large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm causes $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history. (2001)